Ghost Leopard (A Zoe & Zak Adventure #1)

by Lars Guignard

  “Anu here has volunteered to look after you guys. Be nice to her, that’s the main thing, and she’ll be nice to you,” Mr. Merril said.

  “We’ll be back before you know it,” my mom added. “The area we’ll be traveling in is remote. If by chance we get mobile phone coverage, we’ll call. Now, Zoe, I want you to promise me, you’ll be good and listen to what Anu says.”

  “I promise, Mom.”

  “You too, Zak,” Mr. Merril said.

  “No problem, Dad. We’ll listen to Anu.”

  Anu smiled. “I’m sure they’ll both be perfect,” she said in her proper English. “Don’t worry about a thing.”

  My mom hugged me for like the millionth time. “ Stay safe,” she whispered. “ I’ll call if I can get through.”

  “Don’t worry about me, Mom.”

  She kissed me again. Then Zak’s dad hugged him and gave him a friendly punch on the arm.

  “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, kid. And be nice to Anu.”

  My mother and Zak’s father walked out the door to a waiting cab, my mom waving the whole time. I was sad to see her go. But it would be OK. It was only three or four days, and then she’d be back and we would see the sights in Delhi like we had discussed. The only difference was that now, instead of being downstairs in the conference room, she would be away in some small southern villages. It would be fine, I told myself.

  Anu smiled. “Don’t worry, children. I won’t breathe down your necks. Your mother and father are fine with you looking around the hotel on your own. But anything you need, you simply ask, all right? I’m staying on the fifth floor in room five hundred and three. If I’m not down here, I’ll be there. Now, is there anything you guys would like to do?”

  “I think I’ll just hang out around the pool for now,” I said.

  “How about you, Zak?” Anu asked.

  “I’ll just hang. But we know where to find you.”

  “OK. And please, whatever you do, don’t leave the hotel.”

  “No problem,” Zak said.

  “OK. Have fun. I’ll see you soon.”

  Anu smiled and walked toward the elevators. Zak had a big smile on his face.

  “Like the way she called us children?” Zak said.

  “Well, we kind of are.”

  “Yeah, I know, but why rub it in our faces?”

  “I don’t think she meant it like that.” Zak still had that giant smile on his face. “What are you so happy about?” I asked.

  “Me? Happy?” Zak said. “Nah, I’m just psyched we get to find out where this goes.”

  “Where what goes?” I asked. Then I looked down. Zak held the map we had found between his thumb and forefinger.

  “Oh no. We’re not doing that. We’re bringing that to the front desk.”

  “Are not.”

  “Are so.”

  “You just told Anu we would stay put.”

  “I didn’t say that. I said, ‘No problem.’ Think about it. We’re in India, Zoe. Wouldn’t you rather take a few pictures outside the hotel?”

  I thought about it. Then I looked at Zak with the best conflicted expression I could muster on my face. Finally I said, “Sure I guess you’re right. Let me see that thing.”

  Zak smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  Zak held up the map to me. But instead of looking at it, I snatched it from him.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey, yourself. We’re turning the map and key in.”

  I wasn’t afraid of Zak. I really doubted he was going to wrestle me for the map and even if he did, I might have been able to take him. I marched toward the reception desk. There was a large group of people there with their luggage on big brass trolleys. I took my spot at the end of the line and waited. Zak tried to grab the map from me, but I held firm.

  “Come on, there are a million people in this line,” Zak said.

  “So? The map’s not ours. We need to give it back.”

  “Fine,” Zak said. “We give it back.”

  I was surprised by Zak’s change of heart, but I didn’t show it. We stood there and waited.

  “Sure is going to be weird here, without your mom or my dad,” Zak said.

  “Yup,” I said.

  “Do you think Anu’s going to bug us?”

  “She’ll probably check in once in a while. No big deal.”

  Zak looked at the map in my hand. “Hey. What do you say, we just bring the map to Rhino Butt’s room? We’ve got the number.”

  Zak flashed Rhino Butt’s room key. I thought about it. The line was taking forever. On the surface of it, there was nothing wrong with Zak's suggestion. We could just knock on the door and hand Rhino Butt the map. Of course, I was starting to get the feeling that things weren’t always what they seemed with Zak. There was a possibility that handing over the map wasn’t all that Zak had in mind. In fact, I got that tingling feeling in my stomach almost as soon as he had said it — the feeling that no good would come of it. I looked ahead at the line. A man in a neat blue turban was now arguing with the woman behind the desk. They weren’t speaking English. It was Hindi, or Punjabi. But whatever they were discussing, it was clear that they wouldn’t be done anytime soon. A long line versus whatever Zak had in mind. The thing was, I really hated lines.

  “OK,” I said.

  “OK, what?”

  “OK, let’s bring the map to his room.”

  And there you have it. Sometimes you make a decision, and it’s no big deal. Like should I have cheddar or mozzarella cheese on my sandwich? Cheese is cheese. For the most part, whatever you decide, it’s no big deal. But other times, what seems like a small decision turns out to be a very big deal. Bigger than you could ever imagine. It turned out that for me, this was one of those times.

  4

  DOING THE WRONG THING

  Zak and I rode the glass elevator up the side of the interior wall of the hotel. As the lobby disappeared below, I shot a picture of the people beneath us. I didn’t say anything though. After all, what was left to talk about? We would knock on the door and hand the map and key back. That was it. Done.

  “What do you think Rhino Butt was talking about? About this leopard never having had its picture taken?” Zak asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  “Well, it was weird, don’t you think? Because leopards aren’t common or anything, especially back home. But it’s not like they haven’t had their pictures taken. They’re in zoos everywhere. Lots of leopards have had their pictures taken.”

  “Maybe he was talking about a really rare kind of leopard,” I said.

  “I’ll say,” Zak said. “It would have to be even rarer than Big Foot. Because I saw a ton of YouTube clips and guess what? Even Big Foot has had his picture taken.”

  “Well, whatever this leopard is, I guess it hasn’t been photographed,” I said.

  The elevator bell chimed and the shiny brass doors opened. We were on the tenth floor. We left the elevator and walked down the wide corridor. I heard the hum of air conditioning as we walked over the gold swirls on the rich red carpet. We passed by the rooms, one by one.

  “What number is it?” I asked.

  “1081.”

  We were at 1075. The next one was 1077. Then 1079. 1081 was coming up. We both stopped in front of the door. It was an orangish-brown door, like the others, with a brass handle and a peep hole in the middle, about two-thirds of the way up. I shared a glance with Zak and knocked. The rap of my knuckle echoed down the empty hallway. We waited quietly, but nobody came. I knocked again. We waited longer this time, but still, nobody showed up. Since I was a little taller than Zak, I stood on my toes and tried to look through the peephole. That didn’t work, I couldn’t see anything.

  “Oh well,” I said. “We’ll have to give the map to the front desk.”

  “We could slide it under the door.”

  I looked to Zak, then bent down and tried to fit the map under the skinny crack in the door.

  “Too t
hick,” I said. “It won’t fit.” But as I said it I heard a click and the door swung silently open. I looked up fearfully. I expected to see Rhino Butt staring down at me. Instead I saw Zak. He had a twinkle in his eye as he pulled the key card back out of the door.

  “Are you nuts?” I said.

  “Well, this way, we can put the map inside,” Zak said.

  “I’m getting out of here.”

  “Come on. We’re doing the guy a favor.”

  Zak nudged past me and slipped inside the room.

  “Zak!” I whispered hoarsely.

  Looking back on it, even more than the decision to go to the room, that was the moment. That was the moment I should have walked, no, run away. Things would have been different if I had. Way different in so many ways. But I didn’t. One reason was I didn’t want to stay out in the hallway alone. Not with the door open like that. I suppose I could have just left. I really wanted to leave Zak right there. This was his problem. He was the one who had opened the door. He was the one who went inside. But I couldn’t leave him. I had promised my mother that I would look out for him, even if he was a complete doofus. I guess I felt like I had no choice. So I took a breath and entered the partially ajar door. The balcony door was obviously open, because the curtains were billowing in the breeze.

  “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

  Zak didn’t seem to hear me. The room was similar to the one my mom and I were staying in, about the same size, but with one important difference. There were maps tacked up all over the walls. All kinds of maps. Some of the maps had hand-drawn numbers on them. Others were contour maps, the kind that measured the height of mountains, like I had seen in geography. Others looked something like the map we had found with one important difference — they were new, where our map was obviously old. There was a fancy printer on the desk and what looked like a tablet computer. Whoever this Rhino Butt guy was, he was obviously into his cartography. A blast of wind gusted through the room and the front door blew shut with a thump.

  “Zak. We need to get out of here.”

  “I know, I know. Look at this.”

  “Look at what?”

  “This.”

  I walked forward past the credenza to see a long metal trunk on the other side of the bed. The trunk was made of aluminum. It was huge. It had to be eight feet long and over three feet high. There were holes drilled into the top of it that spelled out the name: FRANK BERGER. The trunk was so big, I was amazed that he had even been able to get it into the room.

  “Well, now we know Rhino Butt’s first name,” I said. “It’s Frank.”

  “I’m talking about the map. Look,” Zak said, pointing out a map pinned above the trunk. “It’s the same as the one we found, but this one has a legend. The X shows where the leopard was last seen.”

  “The same leopard he was talking about?” I asked. “The one that hasn’t had its picture taken?”

  “How do I know what leopard?” Zak said, squinting to read the printing. “It just says leopard. I guess it’s the no-picture one.” He looked back at the map on the wall, pointing at another X. “This X just says target.”

  I was starting to get scared. “Zak. We need to get out of here.”

  “OK, OK. Aren’t you just a little curious about what’s in the trunk?”

  “No, I’m not curious about what’s in the trunk.”

  What I was, was worried. Worried we were going to get caught in the room. Zak popped a sunflower seed into his mouth and bent down over the trunk. He started to pull up the lid. The fear I was feeling was getting worse. I knew we needed to get out of there and I knew I needed to persuade Zak to follow me. For his own good.

  “Zak. We need to go.”

  “Just a second.”

  I grabbed a hold of Zak’s arm. “Zak, we need to go now.”

  Zak didn’t move. “We will. I just want to look.”

  I let go of his arm. “You know, I was about right about you,” I said. “I wanted to give you a chance, but I was right all along. You never think about anybody but yourself.”

  The words had barely left my mouth before I heard a key card in the door. I knew it was a key card because I recognized the click from when Zak opened the room. I turned and saw that the door handle was moving. I couldn’t believe it was happening. It was too late to get out now. The next best thing was to hide. I pulled Zak down to the floor and we quickly rolled underneath the bed.

  A man entered the room. I assumed it was Rhino Butt, but I couldn’t be sure. All I could see were his boots from under the bed. They were leather hiking boots with blue laces. They looked new, but I couldn’t say that I really cared. I just wanted out. Zak lay silently beside me. I would have stared daggers at him, but I was too busy watching the boots. I watched them stand by the wall and heard some paper folding. The boots were probably five feet away from me. It was so quiet that I could I hear my own heart beat. I hoped the guy in the boots couldn’t. The bottom of the curtains billowed as a breeze blew in from the balcony.

  The boots walked past the foot of the bed to the balcony. It seemed like he was checking it out.

  “Anybody there?” the man said to no one in particular.

  I recognized the deep, gravelly voice. It was definitely Rhino Butt, the man from the pool.

  Zak began to itch his elbow. I knew he was doing it, because I was lying right there beside him. This time I turned my head and did stare daggers at him. I didn’t want his stupid scratching to be heard. Rhino Butt turned from the balcony and walked over to the metal trunk. I heard the creak of metal and then watched as a polished wooden crossbow was quietly placed on the floor. My grandfather in Virginia practiced archery so I knew what a crossbow looked like. It was smaller than a regular bow and arrow and you held it flat, not up and down, when you shot it. It looked kind of like a manta ray, the way it was shaped, or at least that’s what I thought looking at it sitting there on the floor beside me.

  “I said anybody there?” Rhino Butt called out again.

  I didn’t know how much longer we could keep this up. It was hot under the bed and the sweat on my forehead had started to sting my eyes. Rhino Butt picked up the crossbow and walked back toward the front door. Then he turned toward the bathroom. The bathroom light went on and he stepped inside.

  I looked at Zak. It was decision time. Maybe we could make a break for it. Hide on the balcony. But that didn’t happen, because almost right away there was knock at the front door. I watched Rhino Butt’s boots walk back to answer it. I knew we still had a decision to make. We could stay under the bed or we could take action. I was all for staying under the bed. I guess Zak wasn’t, because when I turned to look at him, he was already rolling toward the trunk on the other side of the bed. I heard the front door swing open and wondered what Zak was going to do. Hide on the balcony? No, that would be too easy. There were voices at the door and some shuffling. Zak chose that moment to open the lid of the trunk. It creaked and I was sure that was the end of everything, but apparently Rhino Butt didn’t hear it. Zak grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into the trunk alongside him.

  To be fair, I could have stopped him, but once you’re in a situation like that, you just kind of keep going. You always hear, if your friend jumped off a cliff, would you? Well, the truth is, it’s not that easy to decide. Not when a guy in shiny leather boots is looking for you. We climbed into the padded trunk and lay down. It was surprisingly roomy in there. I noticed there wasn’t a latch, so I wasn’t worried about getting locked in. Plus, the holes that were drilled into the lid spelling out Frank Berger’s name let a little bit of light and air in too. There was a second crossbow hanging inside of the trunk and some blankets and a tin box on one end. I couldn’t figure out exactly what the trunk was for, but I was starting to think that climbing into it hadn’t been such a bad idea. Maybe it was a better hiding place than under the bed. After all, the guy had already looked in the trunk. What was he going to do, check it again? As it turned out, Rhino Butt looking
back into the trunk would have probably been preferable to what did happen.

  “Get it out of here,” Rhino Butt said.

  “Do you wish to put the bow inside?” a man’s scratchy voice asked.

  “I think I’ll keep it out,” Rhino Butt said. “We may need it.”

  The drilled holes provided just enough light for me to see the mildly concerned look on Zak's face. I was more scared than Zak, that was for sure. Probably because I was more sane. We listened to soft footsteps approaching and then felt a jolt as the rear of the trunk was roughly lifted, followed by the front. I hoped that they were just moving it to the side of the room or something, but no such luck. Instead, I heard the front door close with a soft click behind us as we were carried away.

  To say that I freaked, wouldn’t quite get the picture across. I didn’t just freak. I really freaked right out. And I’m not saying this just to be dramatic. I’m saying it because it’s true. But, because I’m a calm, practical person, I did all my freaking in my head. I jumped around, and spun, and screamed at the top of my lungs, and all that from the comfort of my padded trunk. After all, what was I going to do? Beat up Zak? Kick and try and get out? I had to admit they were appealing options, but I thought we might still get out of the situation without being seen. After all, nobody knew we were in there. I wasn’t quite ready to give up, just yet. As it was though, the situation only got worse, the longer we waited. The changing patterns of light coming in through the drilled holes told me we were being carried farther and farther away. But it was like the farther away we were carried, the more I hung onto my hope that we would be able to get out of the trunk unseen. I guess that’s one of my faults. Sometimes, when I least expect it, I can be a real optimist.

  I kept bashing into Zak while we were carried out of the hotel and then I think we were put into the back of a truck or something. You would think that would have been a good time to get out, but we could hear the men just outside, obviously sitting there talking. It went on like that. It never seemed to be the right time to make a move. First we were in the back of a truck. I could tell by the heat and smell of exhaust and the honking horns. Then we were some place a little quieter, and then, I kid you not, we were loaded onto an airplane. I didn’t know it was an airplane right away, but then I heard the propellors start up, and the plane shook, and soon we were taxiing down the runway. Now you might guess that at this point my freak-o-meter had just about blown off the scale and you’d be right. My optimism had run dry. I was pretty sure it was time to give ourselves up. So we were hiding in a trunk. Big deal. But, in no time, we were airborne and it suddenly seemed like a very bad idea to jump out of the trunk in the back of a plane. What if they decided to throw us out the door or something?